I have not been diligent in my writing duties in the last two weeks or so.  But rest assured I have been diligent in my other duties as a teacher and as a temporary-daughter, as a tourist, as a foreigner, as a student.  My days have been so full of wonderful wonderful experiences- my sports class boys (always brimming with energy and eager to try to be hilarious), THE OCEAN, road trips with my host family, excursions to remote beaches, swimming, eating jagaimo (potato) ice cream, meeting my friend from high school Yuka and her mom, wandering around empty streets during lunch time, chatting with silly, giddy junior high girls, chats with my host mom in the car when she picks me up, taking pictures of the dragons mounted to the houses of the residents of Okinawa, and on and on and on.

I have only been here for three weeks, and will only be here for one more, but Okinawa is probably one of the lovliest places I have ever been. And while its natural beauty will provide stiff competition to any "romantic get-away" or "exotic island" you might ever run across, I use the word lovely not for aesthetic purposes but rather to describe the people that live here.  Now, when I envision Tokyo, I see gray, dark, cold, empty buildings all around with thousands of tired and jaded individuals forcing their way through to reach where they are going.  When I envision Okinawa in my mind, I see simple concrete buildings bursting with plants and flowers of all colors, I see the ocean, people with smiles on their faces slowly making their way.  I feel that Okinawa is such a warm-hearted place, if a place can be that, and have found a happiness here that I did not even know was absent from Tokyo.  Tokyo is a wonderful place and has many things that Okinawa does not, but Okinawa embodies a lifestyle and a sense of peace and happiness that I think Tokyo never can.

All shameless gushing aside, to put it simply I am so so happy in Okinawa and am trying to make the next seven days count for all that I can make them.